Many of us have had more Christmases than we care to remember! We half dread it’s coming because of the superficial spirit brought on by the build up of publicity to enter into the spirit of the festive season. The business world, it has to be said, with an eye on the cash till, seizes upon the idea of goodwill and generosity to encourage us to give presents and to celebrate with rich living. I came across an amusing quote: "There are three stages in a person’s life. First, he believes in Santa Claus. Second, he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus. Third, he is Santa Claus."
In a business magazine I read, there was an article about a company, imaginary I hope, that was planning its Christmas sales campaign. The board of directors was puzzled how they could beat their competitors, then suddenly the chairman had an idea. "We’ll have a crib," he said, getting very excited. "We’ll have the most expensive manger in the world. We’re about to put Christmas back into Christmas!" From then on there was no stopping them. They decided on a slogan lifted from the New Testament, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
The chairman told his sales staff, "We’ll have to emphasise the variety of gifts available. See to it that the Oriental Kings are handing a proper assortment of presents to the Holy Infant." And he went through a great catalogue of the goods they sold. The sales staff arranged their goods in a great pyramid, topped with a stable with the animals, and Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus giving their blessing to all the merchandise. When the chairman saw it he was delighted as he thought of all the money they would make. And then he began to scowl. He called to his manager, "What’s that thing on top?" "It’s the manger, sir." "We don’t sell mangers, do we?" "Well, throw it out!" he shouted. Only a parable, but all too close to the truth of what passes for Christmas.
Celebrate Christmas by all means, says the world, but don’t bother too much whether Christ figures very much in it. It doesn’t say so in so many words, but that’s what happens in practice. Christmas with the most important element missing - Christ himself! I once helped myself to what looked like a really desirable mince pie. It looked very appetising but when I bit into it, it was practically empty! It was a pie without the mince! That’s Christmas without Christ! If we’re to celebrate Christmas we must set-aside for a moment the traditions and rituals that for so many hide its true significance. We must return to first principles - to the Christmas story itself. It’s here that we’ll discover the real meaning of Christmas. Luke tells us of the:
WORD OF THE ANGEL
God’s moment had arrived. The sure word of prophecy unfolded over the centuries by the Hebrew prophets had to be fulfilled - and it was. The angel announced to the terrified shepherds, "Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord" (2:11). He was born in Bethlehem because he was of David’s royal line. And yet in David’s city, the heir of the House of David found no room, even in the inn. So the baby was born in a place where cattle were kept. The angel gave the shepherds a clue as to the type of building to look for. He said the Christ-child would be found in a manger - a humble feeding trough pressed into service as our Lord’s cradle.
How wonderful that our Saviour should begin his earthly life in this way. The birth of a baby in a stable was unusual, but no doubt it had happened before and will happen again among the extremely poor and underprivileged. There are millions even today who are living in refugee camps and in shantytowns surrounding the world’s big cities. The wonder in the situation arises when we consider who the baby was. This was the Lord of Glory. This wasn’t the beginning of his life. He had lived from all eternity in heaven. His hands made the universe. All glory was his by virtue of who he was as the Second Person of the Trinity.
We must remember this if we want to understand how great was his condescension. Centuries ago King Henry VIII on occasions would leave his royal court and disguise himself as a lowly peasant and go about his people to find out for himself the real state of England. Yet in doing so he never for a moment ceased to be the all-powerful king whose word was law. So it was with Christ. Although temporarily reduced to poverty he was still a king.
The Word of the Angel links Christ’s birth with his lordship, "born to you … Christ the Lord." Although his glory was partly veiled by human flesh, he never ceased to be the Son of God. He veiled his power, and became a helpless infant, unable to walk, to think, to speak, being absolutely dependent on his earthly parents. He veiled his knowledge and learned as all children do. He laid aside his sovereignty, his majesty. What condescension! God considered our needs and the worth of our relationship to him to be sufficient cause to go through the trauma of changing places. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," the apostle Paul wrote, "that though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2 Cor 8:9). It was all for our sake, that he might be our Saviour.
The angel was justified in saying to the shepherds, "I bring you news of great joy that will be for all the people" (10). This was the best news that the world had ever received. The shepherds may have been startled by the drama and awe-stricken by the spectacle before them, but they had no need to be afraid. The Gospel is always good news to the humble in heart as were the shepherds. It’s only the proud and arrogant who refuse to accept the word of God, who need fear the wrath of God.
And now from the Word of the Angel let’s think of the:
WORSHIP OF THE HEAVENLY HOST
Luke tells us that hardly had the angel finished speaking, God’s herald was joined by a crowd of heaven’s host. Picture the scene, the night sky suddenly lit by an army of heaven. What a sight! And what a song! "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests" (14). Here we have a declaration of what the coming of Christ means to both God and mankind. God in heaven would be glorified, as he would be revealed as a God of love. Before the coming of Jesus, men’s knowledge of God was imperfect. God had spoken through the prophets as his intermediaries but the writer of the letter to the Hebrews states that "he spoke to us directly through his Son" (1:2). Jesus could tell his disciples, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).
And then there’s the effect upon Earth of his coming. The angel’s song went on, "and on Earth peace to men on whom his favour rests." So why isn’t there peace on Earth? It’s because this peace comes only to those in whom he is well pleased. It’s faith in Christ as our Saviour and Lord that is the key. That’s the only condition that God makes in offering his peace on Earth. It’s an offer that is still open but, sadly, the apostle Paul writes, "The God of this age has blinded the eyes of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" (2 Cor 4:4).
The worship of the angelic choir was especially appropriate to the occasion. Jesus had come to the world without pomp and splendour. There were no fanfares of trumpets. No crowds waiting for news outside the palace gates for a bulletin. On the contrary, his birth went by quite unnoticed by the general public. There was a local tradition for musicians to gather at the home when a child was born to welcome the infant with simple music. This pleasant welcome wouldn’t have happened for the birth of Jesus, as Mary and Joseph were only travellers. But what a lovely thought that the heavenly choir took the place of the missing earthly singers. Strangely enough it’s the worship of human lips that gives our Lord the greatest pleasure. Let’s not fail in our duty.
The nativity story began with the Word of the Angel and led to the Worship of the Heavenly Host. It was followed by the:
WITNESS OF THE SHEPHERDS
It’s quite in keeping with God’s way of doing things that the first public announcement of the birth of Jesus should come to the shepherds. God often chooses those who are lowly esteemed by worldly standards to be a means of blessing. The great and the good of that time despised shepherds. Their daily occupation in the fields left them unable to keep the detail of the ceremonial law and so the religious classes looked down on them as very common people. But God by-passed these pharisees, giving the shepherds the honour of being first to hear of the Messiah’s coming.
The shepherds lost no time in making their way to Bethlehem. It must have been the most unforgettable moment of their lives. It was something that they couldn’t keep to themselves. At the end of Luke’s story there’s a significant phrase, "The shepherds returned" (20). Where did they return? To their work, to be sure, as the faithful shepherds they had been before. But there was an added element to their lives. They "returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen." They had seen the Messiah. They were eyewitnesses of the coming of the Lord and they couldn’t keep it to themselves. We’re told that the shepherds "spread the word what had been told to them about this child" (17). If we are Christians, we have come into a living relationship with Jesus and it’s our duty to share the good news to a world still in darkness.
The Christmas story began with the Word of the Angel, which enlarged into the Worship of the Heavenly Host, then focussed on the Witness of the Shepherds. It ends with the:
WONDER OF MARY
What happened on that night of nights made a profound impression on the young mother. Luke makes the comment that "all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart" (18,19). And well she may. The Christmas story is the most wonderful story ever told. Because of this we’ve heard it repeated over and over again. But here is a danger. It’s possible that in the familiarity our sense of wonder is dulled. The stupendous fact is that here we have the wonder of the universe. Charles Wesley’s hymn tells us that in the Incarnation we see, "Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man!" The philosopher Pascal wrote, "Say what you will, there is something in the Christian religion that is astonishing." This is what we are celebrating this Christmas time. Let’s be like Mary and recall that sense of wonder, the uniqueness of the Nativity.
When you come to think of it, it’s really incredible that the babe lying in the manger was God himself - God in human form, God made man. Yes, it’s something you’ve got to think about. Perhaps if we did think about it more, we should begin to realise how amazing the whole thing is. Someone (Dorothy Sayers) expressed what happened at Bethlehem as nothing less than "the personal irruption of God into human history." Or to put it in Bible language, "The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us" (John 1:14). God and man were united in the one person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The babe in the manger isn’t only Mary’s child, he’s God’s Son. Bethlehem is the meeting point of Heaven and Earth, of eternity and time, of deity and humanity.
This Christmas time, we would do well to consider the cost of Christ’s coming. For God the Father, it meant separation from his beloved Son. For Jesus, it meant humbling himself to a human life, to serve and to suffer. For Mary, it was the cost of saying "Yes" to God’s plan to bring his Son into the world. But that meant that she became pregnant before marriage, facing the inevitable reproach in a strict Jewish culture. Think of the difficulty that she had in explaining it to her family and to her betrothed Joseph! And what would the neighbours think when she brought the baby back home? What does it cost us to be a Christian? In many parts of the world there’s a heavy price to be paid in persecution, often, even life itself.
I began with the pathetic tale of the business tycoon who wanted to capitalise on the Christmas theme for his sales but rejected it because it didn’t fit in with his thinking. And that’s what we do if we deny Christ his centrality in our lives. I’m sad when I see "Xmas" written in place of "Christmas". It seems to imply that there’s no time to spell the word properly. It indicates that it’s not important enough to write the six letters and so the abbreviation to X will do. Putting Christ fully into Christmas demands time and effort. That first Christmas night it was important enough to God to send his angel to announce the birth to the shepherds and for the angelic choir to sing his praises. The shepherds, too, recognised the uniqueness of the event to follow it up with a visit to the stable to find out for them what it all meant.
We have much to learn from the Christmas story. We’re living 2,000 years on from that holy night and it’s only by faith that we can receive the Word of the Angel: "good news of great joy". May we, hearing the Worship of the Heavenly Host, offer our adoration "to God in the highest" and know his peace. Let us, in mind and spirit follow the example of the Witness of the Shepherds and "see this thing which has happened" and having seen, return to our day to day lives "glorifying and praising God". And then, as we saw in the Wonder of Mary, ponder and treasure the mystery of the Incarnation. This Christmas will indeed be one to remember.
